This invention relates to a device and a method for measuring a leakage rate from reference pressure lines onboard an aircraft, for example and airplane.
An airplane will be considered in the following description to simplify matters.
A stable reference pressure must be available when performing test flights on an airplane in order to make differential pressure measurements. Such a reference pressure is obtained using reference pressure lines (ZSR) or “reference lines” connected to a plenum chamber.
The leak tightness of reference lines has to be checked very frequently during test flights. If a leak occurs on such a line, all measurements that are referenced to this line will be wrong. No systematic check of these reference lines has been made up to now. Therefore it is impossible to date the beginning of these leaks. If such a leak occurs during a test flight, the flight will have to be repeated.
One purpose of the invention is a measurement method and a device to make the leak measurement on each reference pressure line before each test flight.